Telling
by jade silvertounge
Summary: In the 7th book, Harry stays away from Ron and  Hermione, knowing they will keep him from going to the forest. But what happens when he runs into them anyway? Leads to him telling others what he must do. Bookverse.
1. Chapter 1

**I usually don't do author's notes, but I will for this one just to clear things up. This is bookverse, my own imagination, and only slightly influenced by the scene in the movie (I really like when Hermione tells Harry that she will come with him to the forest). This is right after Harry leaves the Pensieve, right before he tells Neville to kill Nagini. Just think of this as an extra scene. I would like you to review, tell me if it made you cry or not (I cried when I wrote it, but I tend to be overly emotional). Thanks for reading!**

He was walking slowly through the deserted castle, wanting to savor every moment, every breath, because now they were numbered. But he pushed forward, he had to move, this needed to _end _before anyone else died because of him. But as he passed the Great Hall, something surprised him. It was Ron and Hermione sitting outside the Hall among the rubble, talking softly.

They both looked up as they heard his approaching footsteps, their eyes searching for his invisible form. "Harry?" Hermione asked tentatively. For a moment, Harry couldn't breathe. Hermione and Ron… how would they react? What would they think? But there was no time to explain now—Death was waiting and he couldn't be late. They would finish it, he was sure.

But as he passed them by, Ron was not dissuaded. "Harry, where are you going?" he demanded, his eyes searching the air blindly. Harry faltered for a moment, but that was just long enough for Ron to reach forward and grasp the trailing end of his cloak.

The cloak slid off of Harry's head, but he did not care. Didn't they see he needed to go before he lost whatever courage he had at the moment? But he would not make it to the forest without the cloak, and so he half-heartedly tugged, trying to pull it out of Ron's grasp. But Ron stood firm, his eyes finding Harry's and keeping him there.

"You can't be thinking of going to the forest," he said bluntly. He looked angry for some reason.

"I have to go," Harry said though numb lips. "I have to—to finish…" his voice trailed off as any energy he had disappeared.

"Harry," Hermione said soothingly, her voice trembling. "Harry you can't just give up. Come back to the Great Hall with us, Harry." She was pleading him, beseeching.

But suddenly, for the first time since leaving the Pensieve, Harry was angry. He was angry at Dumbledore for never telling him, angry that he had to leave Ginny and Ron and Hermione, and angry that they were making this so hard, much harder than it should have been.

"No!" Harry shouted. "I have to go!" and he yanked the cloak out of Ron's grasp. But Ron was angry too.

"No! You're not leaving us. You're not abandoning my sister! You have people here who need you Harry, and if you go to the forest it won't be a fair fight!"

"I don't want to go!" Harry shouted furiously, desperately. "But I don't have a choice! I never have!"

Before Ron could shout back, Hermione pushed her way between them, a glimmer of understanding shining in her eyes. "Harry, what aren't you telling us?" she whispered.

Harry wrapped the cloak around him, his energy disappearing as fast as his body. His shoulder slumped forward; his head was still visible.

"I'm the last Horcrux, don't you see?" he whispered. "The one he never intended to make, but as long as I live, so does he. So I have to go…"

"You…you're…" Ron didn't seem to be able to articulate what he wanted to say, and instead stared dumbly at Harry's face.

"I have to die, Ron," Harry said for him. There was no anger left in his voice, only weary acceptance.

"No," Ron whispered, surprising Harry again. "No, you are supposed to live. You have to defeat him! You survived everything else, you can't just die, this can't just be it!" Ron was trembling, shaking, looking more agitated than Harry had ever seen him.

Hermione was trembling as well, but she allowed her tears to fall. "If this has to happen," she said fiercely, "then we're coming with you."

Harry felt a small flash of gratitude, but he already knew his answer. "No. Dumbledore let me tell you everything so that you two could finish it. Get Nagini ; finish Voldemort. You have your job and I have mine."

And suddenly Hermione was hugging Harry tightly, so tightly that he couldn't breathe for a moment. "This can't be right," she whispered. "But I understand." She released him and took a step back. Ron's eyes had still not left Harry.

"Tell Ginny," Harry managed to croak through the odd swelling feeling in his throat, "Tell her I love her."

Ron looked again into Harry's eyes and nodded slowly. "There will never be anyone as good for her as you were, Harry," he managed to say weakly.

Harry nodded back, his throat still tight. "Goodbye," he whispered, pulling the cloak back over his head, sinking back into the familiar numbness.

And as he walked away, he could just hear Hermione's harsh, choking sobs behind him.

He didn't look back. He couldn't.


	2. Saying Goodbye

**Author's Note: I decided to continue with the theme of my earlier chapter. This was just something I had been tossing around for a while, and thanks for a lovely review, I decided to continue and actually post this! Slightly emotional, and I will definetly continue with more chapters (probably only a few). This isn't really AU, more of just a 'what if'. It starts out with Harry talking to all his 'ghosts'- right after using the Resurrection Stone.**

_He had resisted the urge to reveal himself to Ginny—Ron and Hermione would tell her, explain to her why, how he never wanted to leave her but he had no choice, really. _

_He had made it to the forest, remembered the Snitch that Dumbledore left him, known that all these people who died for him had now come to take him home. _

"_You'll stay with me? And no one will be able to see you?"_

"Only if you want them to see us," Sirius answered.

Harry paused. "What do you mean?" he asked hesitantly, his numbness fading slightly.

"We're a part of you," his father answered seriously. "We are everywhere, and nowhere. The stone simply allows us to manifest ourselves to the holder. With the holder's magic, we are able to manifest ourselves to anyone else as well."

"Why do you ask, honey?" Lily asked, still smiling softly at her son. Harry looked back into his mother's green eyes, his mother that had been torn from his life so quickly, so cruelly. He had never been able to say goodbye, not to any of them, and to him that seemed the cruelest fate of all.

"I don't want to leave them like this, with no way to say goodbye," Harry said softly. "They deserve the chance to say goodbye." Somehow, saying goodbye to Ron and Hermione had aroused a hunger in him—he knew he couldn't go back, he knew he had to die, but he at least wanted them to know _why, _that it was all for them, that the Boy Who So Many Had Died For had finally stopped allowing others to sacrifice themselves to him.

"They won't think less of you for any of this, Harry," Remus said gently. "None of us blame you."

But still, Harry stood there, uncertainly gazing at the darkened forest. His surrounding family watched him silently, waiting for his decision. "I don't want to go alone," he managed to say hoarsely. "But I want you to tell them why, tell them I've died before they hear it from Voldemort. I want…" his voice trailed off as the numbness came back and he realized he would never want again after this…

"Remus and I will go," James said with a soft smile. "I always did want to see Hogwarts one last time."

"But Dad," Harry began, momentarily surprised that his father would be the one to go.

"I know you will do what is right," James pushed in, tears glistening on his ghostly pale face. "And I know Sirius is more of your father than I ever was, no matter how often I watched you, tried to guide you. And I know you love me Harry, but you deserve some time with your mother and Sirius, to make peace with yourself and them. "

Harry nodded, accepting his father's words for what they were. It was quite unfair, really, that he had never known his father. But it was just another cruelty courtesy of Voldemort.

James' semi-transparent hand brushed across Harry's cheek, and Remus joined his long lost friend in looking at Harry with a ghost of a smile.

"See you soon," Remus said, an echo of mischief in his eyes. Harry managed to summon a smile. "Goodbye Dad, Remus. I love you,"

As Harry walked away, his mother and godfather on either side of him, he reflected that it was the first time he had ever told anyone he loved them, though he loved everyone with a fierce ache in his chest that throbbed every step he took.

**Please Review! I should finish the next 'chapter' soon, so I'll post as soon as possible!**


	3. The Great Hall

**Author's Note: **This part of the story has been bouncing around in my head for a while, and even though no one reviewed I am still going to post it...

**The Great Hall**

The Hall, usually filled with the chatter and laughter of students, was eerily silent. There were murmurs, quiet voices, an occasional sob, but nothing like what the Hall usually sounded life. The dead bodies in the room had drained the life out of it.

Ron and Hermione sat side by side, separated slightly from the others. Whenever anyone had approached, they were sent away by the forbidding look on Ron's face. Hermione was sobbing silently into his shoulder, and Ron did nothing but stare stoically ahead.

Ginny extracted herself from her mother's death grip and walked over to the pair. "Where's Harry?" she asked, her voice fierce and trembling. "He needs to be here."

Hermione let out a loud sob, and Ron pulled her closer, his face etched with an adult sadness.

"Mr. Weasley," McGonagall's sharp voice rang through the quiet hall. Her face was pale, and her lips were thin. She cleared her throat. "Where is Mr. Potter?"

Ron looked up from his position on the floor. "He's gone Professor," he said quietly, before his stoic mask broke. Tears began to slip down his cheeks as he held Hermione closer.

"He's gone?" Professor McGonagall repeated, breathing faster than usual. "Gone where?"

"Gone to die."

The voice that said these words had an odd double echo to it—but it was familiar to nearly everyone in the hall.

McGonagall's face went white, and she choked slightly on her words. "Remus?" she asked. Every eye in the hall turned the doors, and every face held the same expression of shock and disbelief.

Remus stood casually in front of the doors, looking far younger and happier than most had seen him. His eyes glimmered slightly as he glanced around at the despondent hall. An odd expression suddenly crossed his face. "James?" he called out. "Where did you go?"

Gasps went through the hall as another ghost-like form stepped through the doorway, his footsteps echoing slightly. "I was just looking at Hogwarts," he said wistfully.

"You're Harry's dad," Ron said in a slightly awed whisper. "I know Harry believed it would work, but I thought that was just him, always wanting what he never had."

Ron's thoughtful comment seemed to break everyone out of their shock, and Professor McGonagall was the first to speak. "How did you get here? What are you doing here?"

James grinned lopsidedly. "Good to see you too, professor. Don't worry though—we're not staying for long. We're only here because Harry is, and we're only in the Great Hall to say goodbye for him."

Ginny sat down heavily, falling out of her mother's grip. "What do you mean?" she asked in a harsh voice. "Why does he have to say goodbye?"

It was Hermione, of all people, who spoke up. "They've come to take Harry home," she said, her eyes glimmering with unshed tears.

"Exactly," Remus said with a soft smile. "Once Harry has gone with us, all that is left are the snake and Voldemort himself. And then you can live in peace once more, and remember us and Harry and all we fought for."

"Why?" Professor McGonagall asked, still trying to comprehend what was happening.

Remus walked forward and James followed, fully entering the Great Hall. "It's the only way to defeat Voldemort. In Harry's death, Voldemort is simply causing his own downfall."

"But the why or how is not important at the moment," James said with a faraway look in his eyes. "Harry knows what he is doing. But he was never able to say goodbye to those he loved, and though he knows we will all be together again eventually, he wants to say goodbye. And he want you all to know that he is doing this because he loves you, because he loves you so much that he feels his heart will crack in two if anyone else dies."

There was a moment of silence, but Ginny Weasely broke it, pushing to her feet as her eyes blazed with anger. "Did he ever think of how we would feel? He can't just abandon us, the people he loves!"

"Ginny," Ron said wearily, to everyone's surprise. "He has no choice. In reality, he's never had a choice. But he's still going to do it."

James' eyes suddenly jerked to the far side of the Great Hall, in the direction of the forest. His gaze was unfocused, as though he was looking at something far away. Remus glanced up as well, and for the first time, there was a hint of sadness in his expression.

"You're nearly there, son," James breathed. "Your mum and Sirius lead you straight and true, and you are so close."

"James?" Professor McGonagall asked, her voice breaking slightly. James turned quickly to the Weasely family. "Molly, Arthur, I want to thank you as I never could for treating him as your son. I couldn't think of anyone better to help Harry through his life."

Mrs. Weasely smiled a watery smile, and Arthur nodded his head in James' direction solemnly.

Remus surveyed the room again, smiling slightly. "Goodbye," he said softly. "Goodbye from us all."

And in an instant the two were gone.

**Review please! Did you like it? Did it set the scene? Were the characters close enough to canon for you? **


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